Monday, May 12, 2008

Catholic Movie Review - Horton Hears a Who

I guess I should be happy that Hollywood managed to make a children's movie that is actually rated G, free of flatulence humor, and reasonably entertaining, but I can't get excited about this one.

On the plus side, this Dr Seuss story is generally seen by prolifers as one with a prolife message. However, the author's widow has been so hostile to that message that I can't feel good about spending my money knowing that a portion of it will be passed on to her. Moreover, contrary to all reason, the screenwriters managed to make the villain of the piece a home schooling mom, of all things.

While it has good computer animated graphics, including impressive realizations of the jungle, Whoville, and their denizens, the simple story doesn't stretch to feature length without getting thin, like butter scraped over too much bread, as Bilbo Baggins once said.

So, if it's in the neighborhood, you've nothing better to do, and your kids want to see a movie, you could do worse. On the other hand, unless you really love computer animated graphics, you may as well just put it on your Netflix queue for later.

2 comments:

Hi Vincent, is there any chance that you can point me to a website where I might find an honest 'Catholic' review of the movie "Deliver Us From Evil". I was hoping that the USCCB would have it but they don't and I cannot seem to locate one anywhere. I appreciate your reply.

Neither can I. If you find one, I'd be interested in hearing about it. I haven't seen the movie. Movie documentaries are almost entirely worthless for learning facts. They may be all true, mostly true, somewhat true, or entirely false, but because it's usually impossible to evaluate their claims, I find they are usually a waste of time to watch. However, I have no reason to doubt that some bishops were guilty of protecting abusers instead of parishioners. Denial, wishful thinking, avoidance of responsibility, and protection of members of a fraternal group of insiders are all powerful temptations.

Those in greatest authority who were most guilty seem to have escaped any public discipline, while the assets paid for with the sacrifices of the faithful are sold off, in some cases apparently to protect those in authority from exposure.